Switch from Mac to PC for streaming - Need help

[Mattia Joel]

Hi OBS Family

I am streaming since a year nearly every day.I am a musician and i was using Macbooks for the streaming alone.
First i was running Ecamm and then when my stream had more and more overlays and features i switched to OBS Studio which was the best decision i could make.
I am running OBS for Mac on a 2020 Macbook Pro and most of the times it is working really good but i feel that the PC version has more options and can run more soft with the right hardware. And here is the part i need your help. I didnt own a pc in about 15 years...

I am looking for a desktop version and a laptop for streaming purpose only. I have multiple video overlays, browser overlays, webcams, Zoom Meeting and more integrated into the stream. I also connect an external soundcard. i run zoom meetings on the same computer to show them on screen. So i need to run OBS + Zoom + all overlays + browser on the hardware and would like to get your input for the best solution mobile and desktop. Which CPU which GPU should it be at least? How much Ram is needed. Are there any already configured PCs or Notebooks that have it all out of the box?

Any help is highly appreciated

Thank you in advance

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Lots of recent thread on PC specs
1. In general, for GPU encode offload (reduce load on CPU to make it available for other activity), the general recommendation others make is to be sure to use a nVidia GTX 1650 Super (with Turing NVENC) or better
- assuming you are ok with video quality you get with that
2. You can get away with less, but for a new system, I'd avoid anything under 16GB of RAM. Though beware, some vendors price base model well, then charge outrageous amounts for extra RAM and disk space (like Apple does with iPhone storage). I often go for a nice deal, then upgrade RAM and disk on my own. HDD for archive storage is fine, but I won't use anything but an NVMe drive for my OS drive

Do you also plan to do video editing on this system (ie take local recordings, and do nice edits of that)?
Are you willing to spend more now for a system that lasts longer?
3. IMO, AMD makes better CPUs at the moment .. but due to AMD focusing on just the CPU, vs Intel having a much more mature ecosystem offering, sometimes you end up with Intel instead (it hasn't been worth my time to build my own AMD system, I much prefer a Tier 1 business PC) ... due to security issues, I'd stick to 11th gen Intel CPUs... but others will disagree.. so take it for what its worth

Unfortunately, You are dealing with wanting to buy when there is an industry wide chip shortage, causing issues with prices and availability of CPUs, GPU, etc. Intel's 11th gen desktop CPU out this week, i think (today?). I got a 10th gen Intel last fall, but I don't run as local admin, secured the system, and its on an isolated network... I also have an IT security background, so more 'cautious' than the average person

There are plenty of laptops and desktops that will work fine for your use case. I personally try to avoid consumer grade systems as much as possible (too many corners cut to hit price points), as the slight price premium for business class systems yields MUCH better reliability & longevity, in general
Do you need an engineering/workstation glass laptop? no. A $1K well designed laptop should work fine. You can easily get away with less, if budget is main driving factor. But if you can afford it, my desktop recommendation is a 6-core/12-thread CPU at least, with my personal minimum (not for streaming) is 8c/16t - to provide lots of headroom now, and for years to come, to not have to worry avoid hardware resource constraints, and focus on content/presentation instead.
If needing to buy lower-end CPU for budget or availability reasons, beware - M$ attempt to be more Apple like means some of the default Win10 settings are for eye-candy and fluff (imho).. so I always adjust Win10 from defaults for extra privacy and security, disabling unnecessary startup process, etc - all of which frees up some resources {I'd do the same thing with MacOS, and I do with iOS}. My point being that lower-end can work, you may have to spend more time optimizing a setup

 

[Mattia Joel]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply and sharing your experiences with me.
This helped me alot and i am looking to get a desktop station with a intel I7 10th gen, 32 GB Ram and either the 1660 or 2060 Geforce GPU.
for the GPU i am not sure if the 2060 has a big advantage above the 1660.

Thanks alot

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

for the GPU i am not sure if the 2060 has a big advantage above the 1660.

From what others have said, in terms of NVENC, no not a big improvement.
Maybe someone else will comment as to whether being able to use RTX noise reduction might be a worth-while reason to pay extra for an RTX GPU?